Age of insecurity: will the Great Result make much difference?

I’ve never felt that my general title for my ramblings was so appropriate. Insecurity is the order of the day.

Today, I listened to a broadcast address by Angelina Jolie-Pitt to a large audience of interested people. Her topic was migration and the plight of so many migrants of all ages and backgrounds. We hear daily reference to demands by Turkey for their people to be allowed to travel freely in the EU or at least in most of the EU.

Next, we hear about Donald Trump, a presidential hopeful, who arouses howls of protest and laughter in equal measure.

The fact that this is the warmest year on record (or was it last year?) may have a connection to the devastating fires in Alberta and to climate change in general. So many conflicts, natural disasters and diseases, with other causes of tension and insecurity!

Our own EU referendum and discussions about it seem to generate more heat than light. Of course, economic forecasts rarely seem to come to valid conclusions. Perhaps, like most political careers, they are doomed to failure.

I didn’t intend to comment on the referendum or give a judgement. I must now confess that I’ll abstain, and not vote at all. My reason is simple: as an octogenarian on the ‘Downhill Run of Life’, I’m sure that the result will be of lesser consequence for me than for the three generations that follow me. I believe that it should be their decision. Through all the fact and fiction of the EU debate, the decision probably depends on gut feeling. Perhaps it’s a bit like marriage: we feel that we know what’s right.

Our great old town seems to be doing OK. People visit Amble, like it and come back.
By the time we read the next edition of The Ambler, the Great Result will be out. Will it make much difference to most of us? We’ll still live in houses (some of us), eat food, and do the things we can do.
And, as I always say, things will work out better if we do them TOGETHER.Harry McQuillen